Page 1 of 32sciencepalooza! Teacher Handbook 2011-12 school year 1

  • Here is some information to help you become acquainted with the differences between sciencepalooza! (district fair) and the Synopsys Championship (county fair). (Insert PPT)
  • Here is a schematic to show how all of the fairs are related to each other.

Science Fair Organization in Santa ClaraCounty

  • Below is a suggested timeline. These can be modified but the applications should be submitted by Dec 1.
  • It is suggested that points for the project are distributed throughout the 2 semesters and not given all at once.
  • Projects vary; you may need to be flexible with certain projects depending on material availability, etc.

Timeline / Suggested Due Date / Points
Topic Selection / 20-Sept
Research / 1-Oct
bibliography
Variables-dependent, independent, and control / 10-Oct
Problem Statement / 20-Oct
Hypothesis / 29-Oct
Experimental Design / 5-Nov
Submit application and get approval / Nov 16
Material List / 19-Nov
Log Book
data tables / 15-Dec
graphs / 20-Dec
results / 5-Jan
Conclusion / 10-Jan
Powerpoint/oral presentation / 20-Jan
Board / 30-Jan
Abstract / 5-Feb

*Design Cycle includes: design, build, analyze (DBA)

See PowerPoint on Engineering Design online at

  • Here are two lists of tasks, one for the class and one for you, which might help in planning.

In Class Tasks / completed
Introduce Science fair project expectations
Offer extra credit for Championship
Review scientific method
Emphasize independent, dependent variables and control
Establish timeline
Reserve computers for topic research
Set up dates for topic meetings
Reserve computer lab for online applications
Have students request materials
Schedule after school work days
Reserve computers for graphing, PowerPoint
Schedule presentation days
Field trip forms
Boards due Monday before palooza
Teacher Tasks / completed
Create Your Timeline
Decide if students will participate as individuals/groups
Apply for SOF Grant Online
Set aside sciencepalooza! date to judge
Send in W-9’s
Organize project submissions and acceptances (hard and soft copies advised)
Order materials
Save boxes boards arrive in
Sign up for judging/get parking pass
Invite principals, potential judges
Make sure board stickers are properly filled out
Duplicate field trip forms
Arrange for transportation (busses can be provided)
Distribute parent letter, student letters, permission slips
Pack boards in boxes, place in office for pickup
Post sciencepalooza! posters
Present certificates
  • A brief description of the process.

sciencepalooza! What to expect…

1)Apply for a grant, maximum = 20 total (1- 19 for palooza!, 1- 20 for Championship)

2)You will receive a materials fund check for $25 per project up to $500 for 20 projects. This will be addressed to your school to your attention. You should deposit it into a school account as soon as it is received. This usually arrives in November. This can be used to buy equipment, pay application fees for Championship, or even printer cartridges for printing out display board information.

3)Set aside the day of sciencepalooza! to accompany your students and to help judge.

4)Make sure to visit the Science Buddies website to find project ideas and well designed experiments. Students should not choose projects in less than the green level.

5)You will find a verification form on-line. You MUST return this form by April 15 or you will NOT be awarded your stipend of $100 per project. Projects must be completed on time and presented to receive this stipend.

6)When students submit their forms online, you will receive an automatic email containing important information such as the project control number. Make sure to have the student keep a hard copy of this. You should keep a soft copy as well. If possible, organize these on your computer for easy access. EXCEL works nicely.

7)Submit only one application for each group project.

8)Heidi Black will read over each submitted project and send you back an email stating whether the project was approved or not. If it was approved, again print out a copy and give it to the student. Keep a soft copy as well.

9)If it was not approved, Heidi will let you, and the student, know why. Have the student fix the problem and then use the “modify” option on the website. They need to use the control number and your email to do so. All this information is on the submission page.

10)In December you will receive display boards for each accepted project. DO NOT THROW AWAY the boxes they come in. These will be needed when the boards are picked up the week of sciencepalooza!

11)In January (or earlier), you will receive

  1. Posters to put up in your classroom or other placed around school.
  2. Kudos bars for each student.
  3. Parent letters to distribute with information on the science fair.
  4. Student letters to distribute
  5. Stickers and colored dots with which to label display boards (there will be a note included explaining what color dot to use for which projects)
  6. Certificates for the students

12) T-shirts will now be distributed at sciencepalooza!

  • A task list for students going on to the County Science Fair.

Extra tasks for Championship / Completed
Look at website:
Attend one teacher clinic (see student handbook for dates)
Encourage students to attend one student clinic (See student handbook for dates)
Print applications from website. One required for each project.
Obtain student handbook (available online for download)
Download extra forms as needed for projects
Read through application and make sure everything is filled out correctly, sign where appropriate, make sure there is a student and parent signature for each student doing project
Include application fee check for projects before sending
Send projects to SCVSEFA, PO Box 307, Los Altos, CA, 94023-0307 by deadline
Arrange for students to check in project day before science fair after school at the San JoseConvention Center. This can be any time between noon and 6:00 pm
Arrange for a substitute for after lunch on the day of the science fair so you can escort your students.
Arrange for transportation to the science fair. Students need to be at the convention center before 2:00 pm and will remain at the fair until 6:30 pm. They need to bring their boards home when they leave.
Arrange for food for students while at fair. There is nothing to buy inside the science fair. Students can bring food or you can go outside and purchase food for them.
Make sure all boards come back-students who win will need theirs for the California State Science Fair and/or Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. We would like to display all boards at the District Office.

Don’t assume students are really familiar with the scientific method. Doing a “lab” is much different from designing your own experiment. Make sure they are comfortable with this terminology.

Definitions-

Variables: Something that can change in a project. Light, heat, and moisture are examples.

Independent Variable: Something the investigator changes on purpose (the “cause”)

Dependent Variable: Something that changes as the result of a change the investigator made (the “effect”)

Constants: These are variables that you try to keep from changing in the project to minimize their effect on the results. For example, if you are testing increased light levels, did you also end up increasing the temperature? If so, is the result due to temperature, light, or both. If you are adding compost as opposed to fertilizer, is the moisture content equal?

Control: This is an experimental group that does not experience a change in the independent variable. This is the “normal” group that can be used to compare the experimental results.

Sample Size: This is the number of times or individuals you are doing the test for each group in the experiment. Minimum sample size should never be less than 5. You might work with 10 plants or 100 people in each group. If you are testing something that naturally has a wide range of variation, then you need a larger sample size to see if your results were significant.

Qualitative Measurement: A measurement that does not use numbers such as healthier, greener. Ex: The leaves on the experimental group were less wilted than the control group.

Quantitative Measurements: Measurements that use numbers. Numbers ALWAYS need units. (cm, seconds, individual plants)

Definitions, cont.

Significant Digits: The number of digits you report in your measurement that are significant, or important. If you take the average of 30.1cm and 30.0 cm, you get 30.05. Your ruler, however could not measure to that degree of precision, so you must round off the number you report to 30.1cm.

Accuracy: How close the measurement is to the actual measurement. If you know the plant is between 30.0 cm and 30.1 cm, then you have an accuracy of .1 cm

Measurement Error: The error introduced when using a measuring device such as a ruler or a scale. You might read the wrong number, but often error is just due to the limitations of the device. If you are using a stop watch, you need to think if the time to click it on and off as “error”. It is important to identify sources of error in your project.

Schematic of Scientific Method:

The Scientific Method should start with an observation, which stimulates questions, which requires research, which can be used to develop a hypothesis, which suggests a controlled experiment, which produces results, which must be analyzed and lead to a conclusion. If the conclusion does not match the hypothesis (or even if it does) new observations should have been made, which should stimulate new questions….

This activity is included to help the students become familiar with the concept of dependent and independent variables.


/
  • print-out of the Roto-Copter pattern which you can click-on in Step 1
  • pencil
  • scissors
  • paper clips
  • crayons or markers
  • newspaper
  • cereal bowl


Print out the Roto-Copter pattern. Click here to go to pattern page. Cut along the solid lines only. Fold on the dotted lines.
/ Fold A toward you. Fold B away from you.
Fold C and D over each other so they overlap.
/ Fold the bottom up and put a paper clip on it.

/ If you want, you can use crayons or markers to color your Roto-Copter before you fold it. The colors will blur together when it spins.

Make three Roto-Copters for each person. Use a marker to draw a 1-foot circle on a piece of newspaper. Put a cereal bowl in the middle of the circle. The circle is the target area and the bowl is the bull's-eye. Take turns standing on a chair at the edge of the newspaper and dropping your Roto-Copters. At the Exploratorium, we get 3 points for a bull's-eye, 2 points for a copter inside the circle, and one point for just hitting the newspaper-but you can make up any rules you want.
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Igor Sikorsky designed the first successful helicopter in the late 1930s. His inspiration came from drawings of an aircraft with a spinning wing, drawn by Leonardo da Vinci nearly five hundred years before.

Igor I. Sikorsky Historical Archives -Lots of photographs and information about helicopters and the man who invented them.
Leonardo da Vinci Museum
-This online gallery displays images and other information related to Leonardo da Vinci. The "West Wing" of the gallery has images of helicopters and other flying machines.
This and dozens of other cool activities are included in the Exploratorium's Science Explorer books, available for purchase from our online store.
We would like to hear about your results and discoveries. Please send an email message to Ken Finn.


©1997 Exploratorium /
Why does the Roto-Copter spin?
When the Roto-Copter falls, air pushes up against the blades, bending them up just a little. When air pushes upward on the slanted blade, some of that thrust becomes a sideways, or horizontal, push.
Why doesn't the copter simply move sideways through the air? That's because there are two blades, each getting the same push, but in opposite directions. The two opposing thrusts work together to cause the toy to spin.

Next time you drop your copter, notice which direction it spins as it falls. Is it clockwise or counterclockwise? Now bend the blades in opposite directions-if blade A was bent toward you and blade B was bent away, bend B toward you and A away. Drop the copter again. Now which way does it spin?
In the Spinning Blimp, air pushes up on the flat sides of the strip of paper. When the flat side of the paper strip is parallel to the ground, the blimp drifts down like a flat piece of paper. But if the blimp tilts so that the flat side of the strip is at an angle to the ground, the paper strip gets a sideways push, just like the blade of the copter, sending the blimp spinning. Each time the flat strip comes around, it gets another push and goes for another spin.

This activity helps the students understand the importance of defining variables, using controls, and exploring the many options that may be used in designing a procedure.

Topic selection is the most time consuming and important part of doing a science fair project. Below is a list of activities that may help the student choose a topic. Choose those that suit you, but it will help to do as many as you can fit in. Try to get parent or mentor help to guide the students at this point-it will save a great deal of time later on. The more limits you put on topic selection the easier it will be for students to choose a topic. Consider having students select projects that reinforce the California State Science Standards.

Topic Selection ideas / due date / points
1)List 20 things that interest you
What kinds of things do you enjoy doing?
What area of science interests you the most?
If you could be a scientist, what would you like to do?
What are your hobbies or free time activities?
What do you like to do on rainy days?
What kinds of books do you like to read?
Which movies or TV shows might give you ideas or information?
What are your special skills or talents?
2) narrow 5 of these to a question that can be investigated
make the question very specific-ex
topic = electricity
specific = electricity for Christmas tree lights
more specific= Christmas tree lights wired in series and parallel
even more specific= do lights wired in series use less electricity than lights wired in parallel
3) make 20 observations
4) change 5 of these into "what if?" or "I wonder?" question
5) use the science standards for your course to identify possible topics
6) Look at, print and summarize 3 websites other than science buddies
7) do a google search using two science terms to see what other researchers are doing
8) Go to science buddies ( and fill out topic selection wizard
-print out topic ideas
9) meet with teacher/mentor to discuss possible topics

Give students the chance to become familiar with science writing and the information that might be gained by reading. Choose and run off an article from Discover, Science News, or Popular Science.

Have students:

  • Read the article, identifying the independent and dependent variables and controls described.
  • List materials that were used in the experiment.
  • Create a step by step description of the procedure.
  • Use the controls or other information given in the article to develop alternative investigations the scientist might have explored.
  • State the investigator’s hypothesis and conclusion.

The more research the student does, the less time will be wasted setting up procedures that fail. The minimum number of resources should be 3, it is recommended that the student have between 5 and 10. Students should fill out this page, print out the resource, and type up a paragraph summary. You may want to have the students use easybib.com or

Research Source ______

Title:

Author:

Web address or publisher:

Date:

Two things you learned from this source:

1)

2)

A hypothesis is not just a guess-it is the application of a scientific principle to an unknown situation. Here is an excellent lesson on building hypotheses: Students should use the information from their research to develop their hypothesis in a format as shown below. Students should also be ready to fill out their project proposal.

Project Proposal page

Students should develop detailed procedural steps and walk through as much as possible to avoid unexpected problems. This may be a good time for peer review.

A form for engineering projects.